A Simple and Fun Note Identification Game

Several of my students seem to need constant reinforcement with understanding the staff and identifying notes on it. And some of them are still in the phase where the “light bulb” hasn’t quite gone on yet. 🙂 So I’m always looking for different approaches to use during lessons. Here’s a simple game that I’ve been playing with various students for the past couple of weeks:

With his eyes closed, Andrew draws a scale block from the container. Whichever side he looks at first is the note that he must draw on the staff (for the younger students who haven’t learned sharps and flats yet, we just go with the natural note on the block that they select).

The student may draw the note anywhere they want in the treble of bass clef…but they can only use each line or space once! So, if they draw multiples of the same note, they have to find another place to draw it on the staff. We haven’t done this yet, but you could even have the student play the “pattern” of notes on the piano after they’ve used up the length of the staff!